


The Promise in Our Hearts

by knightnliege



Category: Deltarune (Video Game), Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Deltarune Spoilers, F/F, Gen, Male Kris (Deltarune), Minor Noelle Holiday/Susie (Deltarune), Post-Deltarune Chapter One, Stress Baking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:14:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25338184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/knightnliege/pseuds/knightnliege
Summary: A few days have passed since the events of Deltarune Chapter 1, and Kris and Susie have still not returned. In the Card Kingdom, Ralsei finds himself stress baking due to worry, Lancer trying to calm him. In the overworld, Kris has seemingly gone missing, and Susie enlisting the help of Noelle in order to find him.
Relationships: Noelle Holiday/Susie (Deltarune)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24





	The Promise in Our Hearts

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, this is just a simple one-off fanfiction that I don't really plan on continuing, but I hope you enjoy it!

“Are you just gonna keep doing that?”

“Doing what?”

Lancer’s nose scrunched, and he didn’t move from his spot seated on Ralsei’s kitchen floor. It was a wonder how the young prince managed to keep the room so clean. The floors, dark blue and black tiles that could almost resemble mirrors by how clean they were. The rest of the kitchen was nearly empty, seemingly minimalistic, but it didn’t feel unused. The rest of the room itself felt warm, despite the brash and chilling blues that kissed every cabinet and pot. The vibrance was huffed and cold, like the feeling of long, tentative fingernail backs being dragged up the side of one’s arm.  
Lancer had once tried to piece together the use of the room itself, since Ralsei was a lone prince, he wouldn’t have anyone to bake for, but that never seemed to stop his stressful stirring.

Ralsei was perched over his countertop, a large mixing bowl clenched in his left hand, and a whisk in the other; which he was viciously using to stir. He’d barely glanced up to answer Lancer when he had first spoken, hyperfocused on the task at hand. Other ingredients and supplies surrounded him, whether they were bags of flour and sugar, or little cartons filled with baking soda and butter. Small splatters or puffs of material laid sporadically or stickily all over the countertops. Ralsei seemed to be suffering from a different sort of uncharacteristic uncleanliness. While his kitchen seemed to have some sort of neat perseverance, besides the large countertop, of course; the anagram prince seemed completely exhausted. His hat seemed to have been discarded, Ralsei perhaps being worried about dirtying it with baking supplies. His white fur didn’t seem to disregard the heavy black bags that resided under his eyes, as well as his hunched, clearly sleep-deprived demeanor.

“Stress baking.” Lancer replied quietly in his whizz of a pitched voice, lightly crossing his arms across his chest, his eyes slanting nervously from far under his hood. He lightly gestured to the small mound of other cakes and pastries at the other side of the kitchen, his expression not leaving his face. Ralsei had been baking feverishly ever since Susie and Kris had left, and while Lancer admittedly didn’t know Ralsei too well, he could tell stress when he saw it, having experience with various interactions with his father or Rouxls Kaard. Sometimes, even within itself. As a prince who was relatively disliked, though he was insecure enough to internalize it but not admit it; he could feel the loneliness often, the shame and disenchantment, it was often too much to bare; but not anymore.

Ralsei stopped his repetitive movements, glancing towards Lancer with a slightly bewildered expression, before looking back down to his grip on his whisk and bowl, his exhausted eyes widening before he released his grip, noticeably embarrassed and sheepish. “No I wasn’t.” The dark prince mumbled, withdrawing his hands back to the inside of his coat. “I just need to be prepared for when the heroes return!” He declared, trying to release his finishing statement on a positive note, passing a weakened but bright smile over to Lancer. “They might be hungry when they get back, so I need to make some more cakes!” Ralsei seemed to be trying to reason more with himself, not just with Lancer. A clearer hesitance was visible behind his eyes.

“Dude, I don’t even think Susie can eat this many cakes.” Lancer mumbled, before standing from the crystal-clear floor, leaving a slight smudge from where he had been sitting. He scuttled over to the counter, his concerned expression deepening when he got a closer look at Ralsei’s frazzled expression. He stood on the opposing side of his taller friend, his hands lightly gripping the counter in order to have a stance so he could properly make eye contact. “Seriously, what’s up?” He phrased softly, worry lacing his throat and words. He wasn’t used to seeing his friend so estranged and sick, as if another bad situation would lead to him throwing up, or something.

“Nothing’s wrong!” Ralsei declared, trying to emphasize his point through his clearly stressed demeanor, his voice managing to shine through in a somewhat chipper demeanor. This didn’t work as a foolproof, the prince could tell, but he didn’t want to trouble Lancer, his dear friend, with any emotional hitches of his own life. After all, the boy had just become the King Spade, surely he was busy enough as it was. Ralsei was a prince, an esteemed ruler, he could handle his own interpersonal issues by himself. He’d be fine. “I’m just eager to see them again, that’s all!”

Lancer upturned his lips from a straight line into the curl of a waxing moon, a frown that was evident in a vertical sense. The tension between them was clearly defined, almost a thick sort of feeling. The atmosphere bending between the two had slowed down, a sickly sweet taste; as if it were molasses. Well, it might have also been from the cakes, but that wasn’t what was important now. “Look, toothpaste boy,” Lancer was trying to make an attempt to lighten the mood with his statement, but he felt regret in his senses after speaking; thus sort of cringing in response to hearing his own voice. “I don’t really know..why? You’re so..not good..” Lancer tapped his thumbs together, his gaze wavering between the ground and Ralsei himself. “But just know that I can help! You can talk to me.” The young prince reached out, tentatively moving to place the tentative flat of his hand lightly against the side of the taller prince’s forearm. “I’m your friend, I’m here for you.” He added, the resonance of his own voice buzzing in the back of his throat.

The spade’s eyes glued to the other’s, and time seemed to slow down, the pace quiet and soft. He felt the light faltering and shakiness of Ralsei’s forearm under his hand, as if the boy was about to finally break under his grip from the stress and emotional toil. Lancer felt a shudder between his fingers, before Ralsei pulled away. The dark prince’s head was pointed downwards, away towards the ground. It was unavailable to the eyes, but he was making an attempt to keep his eyes from remaining unmisted, pressure behind them evident. He knew it would be unwise in this situation to portray his true emotions, the fear of losing the people whom he had come to adore, and deeper, the betrayal. He didn’t want to admit his internal frustration, the guilt for even feeling it settling in his stomach.

“It’s just,” The prince started, finally caving in to the want of his friend; letting his emotions open up like a lately-bloomed flower. Lancer turned his head a little further, giving a small nod to show that he was listening. Ralsei observed his expression, before hesitantly continuing on. “..It’s been two days, shouldn’t they have returned by now? I hope they made it back through the portal okay.” He mumbled, his throat nearly choked up already. He wasn’t used to this. He’d never had the opportunity to properly discuss these internal feelings with before. Sure, he’d shared remnants of his deepened internal thoughts, mostly with Kris, but he wasn’t used to it. He always felt a small pit of guilt near the bottom of his stomach. He gulped softly, before refocusing his gaze and continuing. 

“..Do you think they forgot about us? Or got bored of us?” These thoughts did seem irrational upon a second consideration, he really did feel as if he and Lancer had made emotional connections and had formed close bonds with Kris and Susie, but what if that wasn’t enough? They’d said that they would be back soon, well, not with those words, but they certainly had spoken with their actions.

Lancer’s eyes widened, and he quickly shook his head, giving a light tug to the fistful of Ralsei’s coat that was bundled in his hand in an attempt to snap his friend out of his regret-filled gaze. “Dude, dude, hey!” He exclaimed quietly, trying to desperately get the attention of his friend. “It’s okay, I promise it’ll be fine. They’re our friends, I’m sure they’ll come back! Maybe something happened and they weren’t able to come, it’s nothing to worry about!” The spade tried to reason, a sympathetic smile on his lips. He couldn’t help but feel a twinge of understanding in the thoughts that Ralsei had shared, but he didn’t wish to dwell on it. He was sure that their friends would come back eventually, they had to.

Ralsei gave a little shrug, his shoulders loosening in tension at the reassurance that Lancer was making an effort to provide. Internally, he knew that he was right, Ralsei had no reason to worry, their friends had never betrayed them before, they had no reason to abandon them. “Yeah,” He mumbled, a small smile forming upon his lips. “Yeah, you’re right. Thank you Lancer.”

“Of course, anytime dude.” Lancer responded, replicating the smile on his own face. He lightly let go of Ralsei’s cape, before dropping his hands back to his sides. He glanced back over the partially spotless kitchen, before lightly gritting his teeth. “We should probably clean this up.”

“Oh, right, yeah.”

\------

Susie tapped the half-eaten butt of her pencil against the side of her desk, which was almost completely tattooed with various ink doodles and typical S squiggles in various designs and angles. She wasn’t focused on adding towards any of them, or on the assigned work scribbled in uneaten chalk at the front of the classroom. Despite her hunger, there wasn’t really a reason to devour that specific thing. It wasn’t needed, since she hadn’t ventured back into the Card Kingdom yet. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to, she dearly did miss her friends. Lancer and Ralsei were always at the back of her mind, a soft pleading at the back off her head, pressed against her skull. It was as if a freshly formed ideal and closeness had been fiercely ripped out of her grasp, forming an absence that had been there before, but had never been malicious until now.

Believe her, she did want to return, but the one formation in her way was her new best friend, Kris. Right before they had parted ways after that fateful trip down the rabbit hole of a storage closet, she’d said a line, she’d said a mutual, hopeful promise.

“Let’s come back tomorrow.”

But the next day Kris didn’t come back, and he didn’t come back the day after that, which was today. Susie didn’t have a phone, nor did she know Kris’s number, so there wasn’t any possible way of distanced communication. And it wasn’t like she could venture to Kris’s house and interrogate him about his absence, she didn’t know where he lived. She had no choice but to ask around, or ask another one of his friends. But Kris didn’t have any friends.

What was worse was that she had no way of talking to Ms Toriel, not even between classes. Apparently nobody had seen her in the same window of time that Kris had been gone, a substitute had replaced her teachings, and the rest of the staff seemed to be very hush-hush about her as well. It was all very concerning.

“Goddammit, Kris.” Susie muttered under her breath, her vision mindlessly focused on a slant between her desk and the front of the room, her eyes lightly glazed from her discontentment. Her personal thoughts and babbling didn’t go completely unnoticed, especially by the teacher, Miss. Alphys.

“Susie?” Spoke the timid lizard at the front of her room, her hunched demeanor not only naturally evident, but enforced under the unintentional intimidation that Susie naturally provided more than enough of. Susie, however, being unprepared to hear any sort of speech directed towards her own self, lightly jolted in her seat, shooting her head towards Alphys with an unintentional, wide-eyed stare. Alphys gave an intimidated gulp in response, her mouth filled with stammers and fear.“C-Could you please not sp-speak when I-I-I-” Alphys fumbled with her words, jittering her gaze towards the ground, nearly unable to finish her sentence coherently. 

Susie narrowed an eye, her mind bored and frustrated, frazzled with spinning thoughts. Alphys continued her stammering, trying to complete a sentence that she clearly didn’t have any willpower or strength to complete. The purple girl cut off her teacher with a mumbled “whatever,” and glanced off to fall back into a daze for the rest of the class period. The only time where she was once again dragged out of consciousness was when she heard the bell ring, sending the rest of the students that were seated around her to arise upwards. She savored the inadvertent pleasure of sitting lazily before following about the universally instilled order to stand. She glanced ahead to look amongst the people who had begun to make their way out of the classroom. 

Surely someone in this room had had some sort of previous contact with Kris, she couldn’t have been the only one. After a few moments of observance, her eyes fell upon a certain deer who had begun to make her way to the door. Noelle, of course! She’d seen the two of them interact previously, the sweet girl having always had a slight tenderness in her heart for the kid, or maybe it was just pity for how he was treated by the other monsters. And, anyways, it wouldn’t be such a bad idea for some light small talk with her. There had always been something about her that had caught attention in the threads of her mind. She wasn’t a bad sight either.

“Hey, Noelle?” Susie mumbled towards Noelle as she approached her, the girl in question quickly jolting her head to look at the other, a furious pink quickly catching her cheeks.

“Oh, hey Susie!” The girl mumbled, her voice a little too squeaky and rushed, her tone pitched in excited fragments. The girl’s demeanor confused Susie, who didn’t quite know what to make of the behavior. Susie perked an eyebrow and lightly shuffled on the backs of her heels, keeping her gaze light as she glanced the girl over and downwards.

“Hey Noelle.” Susie muttered, glancing to the side to see that the rest of the students had left, before gently guiding the girl out of the classroom towards the edge of the hallway. She lightly pressed her back against the edge of the lockers to glance the girl over. She pursed her lips before continuing. “Have you seen Kris around lately? It’s been a few days, and I’m, uh,” She hesitated, her cheeks flushing lightly at the almost-embarrassing statement that she was about to make. “..worried about his safety.” She mumbled, crossing her arms over her chest as if to preserve some sort of intimidation.

Noelle perked her head to the side, her hair lightly falling in order with her movements. She’d never seen Susie display an emotion other than stress and frustration, and seeing her showcase any sort of kindness and worry really threw her off for a few moments. She’d never seen her be sweet. Noelle took a moment to think, not sure what to do about it, before falling out of her line of thought when she realized how long she and Susie had been making eye-contact for. She sputtered for a second, glanced away before glancing back. “Oh, uh, no..” She was about to just leave it at that, before she saw Susie’s face begin to fall with a seeming loss of hope. The last thing she wanted was to cause any sadness towards the girl, so she threw out a last ditch effort that she hoped would revive the spirit of the conversation. “Uh, but I know where Ms. Toriel lives! Me and Kris did some volunteer work last year by mowing the lawns of everyone in the neighborhood! She wanted to help contribute, and it was super sweet of her, and..” Noelle let her sentence draw out inconclusively when she saw the relieved, but slightly amused expression on Susie’s face. The girl’s mouth was still slightly drawn open, so she shut it, before spilling out an end to her words. “..so, uh, yeah. I can take you there after school if you want!” Noelle rambled hopefully, her eyes scanning Susie’s monotone expression for some quirk of acceptance.

She watched as the shuffle to roll her shoulders and glance away, in an attempt to seem carefree rather than relieved to have some way of checking on her friend.

“Sure, whatever.”

\------

By the end of the day, when the hallways were clear, students heading out to go and work on projects at the library or commune at the houses of one another. Fall continued to stretch its legs with fluttering dead leaves and sticks. While everyone was off to perform at least relatively normal activities, Susie and Noelle had started their mini-quest off towards Ms. Toriel’s house in search of their beloved acquaintance. Susie had never actually been in this part of town before, squinting slightly at how different the atmosphere felt from what she was used to. She didn’t know quite how to place or describe it, but it was certainly there to notice and observe internally. She could feel Noelle glancing at her occasionally, perhaps in question of her clear internal turmoil. But that didn’t matter. She had to get back there, she needed to see Ralsei and Lancer again. She couldn’t leave them alone.

Eventually they reached the house, at which Noelle eyed Susie again. They stood there for a moment, gazing at each other with a hesitant confusion. A brief pause flooded between them, neither of them quite sure what direction to take for a brief moment. Eventually, Susie took a deepened breath, before stepping forwards to ring the doorbell. A pregnant pause pursued the sound, leaving a trail of confusion to follow alongside it.

There wasn’t an answer, but upon a secondary decision to knock at the front door, it slowly swung open, revealing the neat interior design of the house. The essence of it rang cozy and well tended to, but also lived in. Upon closer inspection you could discover indentures in the couch where people had sat, as well as rings that marked the use of coffee mugs. 

Noelle let out an exhale of understanding to follow the tension, her face flushing lightly in an unforeseen embarrassment. “Oh, I forgot! Ms. Toriel always leaves her door unlocked.” She didn’t quite know the reason as to why, so she formulated one herself. “I guess she’s just always open to visitors, I suppose.” Susie turned her head to look upon the shorter, giving a light roll of her shoulders in response to the statement. While the interior of the house looked cozy and inviting, she couldn’t help but feel some sort of tension in the air to follow. Something felt off, wrong. The house was silent and tense, radiating an unnerving sort of feeling that she couldn’t place into a tongue. Silently, she moved forwards into the inside of the house, Noelle following closely at her tail. 

“Kris?” Susie called out in repetition as her and Noelle journeyed throughout the house, the shorter girl replicating the performed actions of her crush. It felt as if they were calling out to nobody, blindly chasing ghosts in the dark. They opened doors, and were know made aware of the locations of the bathroom as well as Toriel’s bedroom, but so far were unlucky in the potential discovery of where Kris normally resided.

That was until they discovered it, the room sitting snugly between furniture that had been carefully maintained and prepared, as if it was waiting to be seen and observed. This sight looked completely strange, almost unnerving. The door had been left wide open, large footsteps that clearly lead out of the room indented in the shag carpet below. Noelle let out a shudder, the offputting energy of the house finally seeming to get to her. Susie swallowed, feeling a small pit in her stomach begin to form as she approached the front of the door.

As the two girls stepped inside, things were made very clear.

The window was wide open, the curtains violently ripped apart to make room for an escape.

Feet indentures were marked clearly in the shag carpet, violently draws of feet squished down.

And inside of the birdcage rested a heart, a real heart, a human heart.

It was still beating.


End file.
